THE Kremlin claims Vladimir Putin hopes for a better working relationship with Theresa May than her predecessor David Cameron, who enjoyed poking fun at the vain Russian leader’s physical prowess.

The Kremlin claims Vladimir Putin is hoping for a good working relationship with Theresa May

Noting Putin’s liking for stripping down to the waist to show off his physique, Cameron once quipped: “Don’t expect me to go arm wrestling with Vladimir the next time I see him.”

He was probably wise, mind you. US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher once admitted to losing a drunken arm wrestling contest with Putin during the latter’s visit to Washington in the early 1990s when he was a government official in St Petersburg.

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The Republican later remarked: “He’s a little guy, but boy I tell you, he put me down in a millisecond. He is tough… his muscles are just unbelievable.”

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DOWNING Street, meanwhile, has been keen to stress Prime Minister Theresa May remains very much in charge despite being on a walking holiday in Switzerland.

“She will be kept updated and briefed on issues as necessary,” says a spokesman. Alternative arrangements can prove unsettling.

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John Prescott at the helm was more than unsettling

When former deputy prime minister John Prescott was at the helm during Tony Blair’s summer breaks the nation was gripped by a state of anxiety at the thought of the old buffoon being anywhere near the nuclear button.

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COMEDIAN John Cleese taunts American fans over what he considers their country’s late entry into the Second World War. Noting the US became involved more than two years after Britain, he remarks they “only realised Hitler was a bad chap in December, 1941”.

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John Cleese has recently parted from £13million after his recent divorce

Cleese, 76, knows the US well. He has been married to – and subsequently divorced from – three American women. The last bitter split, from Alyce Eichelberger in 2008, cost him £13million.

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AS the BBC prepares to screen a new version of Are You Being Served? next month, sadly none of the original cast are alive to offer their verdict. Actor Nicholas Smith, who played Grace Brothers manager Mr Rumbold, passed away in December last year, aged 81.

He enjoyed recounting how there had initially been fears the show’s risqué jokes would offend viewers.

“We said, ‘We’ll never get away with it,’” he once admitted. “But [co-creator and director] David Croft would reply, ‘Deliver those lines with complete innocence as though you haven’t the slightest idea there is any sense of a double entendre.’ And it worked.”

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HAILED for his matinée idol good looks, Robert Redford, – who turns 80 this week – has long insisted there was little indication he was heart-throb material in his youth.

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Robert Redford says he had no idea he was good looking as a youngster

“I was a kid who was freckle-faced and they used to call me ‘hay head’,” the fair-haired actor once recalled, adding: “Nobody told me I was good-looking. I wish they had. I would’ve had a better time”

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DAME Joan Collins, who starred opposite late actor John Forsythe in Dynasty, highlights how he hogged the limelight when it came to publicising the show.

Joan Collins in pictures

Wed, March 9, 2016

English actress and author, Dame Joan Collins' life in pictures.

Forsythe’s oil tycoon character Blake Carrington was the ex-husband of Collins’s scheming alter-ego Alexis. Alerting fans to the soap’s DVDs, Joanie now remarks: “Notice how prominent John Forsythe is in all the covers. It was part of his contract!”